Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomin:

Psalms 91:1 “He who dwells in the secret place of the most high, shall abide in the shadow of the almighty.”

I have often said that these devotionals reflect my personal journey to the heart of God. I feel it is time to reveal the origin of my obsession with this journey.

Many years ago when I was a graduate student, I and another student were studying under Dr. Kalland who was on the executive committee for the translation of the Old Testament for the New International Version.  Basically we were reviewing many of translation submissions of the various Hebrew scholars participating in the translation project.   Dr. Kalland presented this verse to us and indicated that they were going to render the word “satar” as a shelter rather than the KJV’s rendering “secret place.”

The other student and I just looked at each other.  “You can’t, that takes all the specialness away from the word.”   The response was that there was no such word as “specialness” and besides God has no secret places.  So shelter it was.  It was that and the handling of other words  that sent me to the Jewish community to consult with orthodox rabbis.   I presented the word “satar” to one such rabbi and expected him to pull some sort of  Jewish word study book.  Instead he just wrote out the word satar “Samek, Taw, Resh” in the Hebrew script.   He then pointed to the “samek” and said: “Come look, does the samek not appear to be a container with a lid on it.  The samek does indeed represent a shelter, but look at the next letter, it is a Taw.  The Taw is the last letter in the alphabet, it represents the end, the end of a journey.  The last letter in this word, Resh,  tells you the end result of your journey which has led to a container with a lid on it.  The Resh represents the Spirit of God.  The samek or container is the heart of God.  Satar is a journey to the heart of God.  His heart is indeed a shelter is it not?”

I had to admit it, rather disappointedly, that “satar” was a shelter.  But then the rabbi added this:  “Is not the heart of God a secret place?”

With all due respect to the NIV, I must maintain that the rendering of “satar” should be a “a secret place.”   At least for me that rendering is meaningful, it represents my life’s pursuit, to find my secret place in God’s heart.  This verse tells us to dwell in that secret place.  It also says that if we do we will “abide” in the shadow of El Shaddi (Almighty God).   I remember an old cartoon of a baby chicken hawk who was surrounded by a group of predators ready to turn him into a grease spot.  The little baby chicken hawk bravely took his stand as the predators approached.  Suddenly a huge shadow covered them all and without looking around the predators all took off in terror running from the shadow of the mother chicken hawk.  The enemy will flee in terror from us, not because he is afraid of us, but of that huge shadow of the Almighty God covering us.

But first we must dwell in the secret place.  Hence the secret place is not a hiding place, our hiding place is in the Shadow of the Almighty.   I believe the satar, the secret place, is something else.  The word “abide” is “yatelonan” in the Hebrew.  This is from the root word “lon” which means to lodge, dwell, tarry.  But this is found in a Hithpael  form which means you are lodging by yourself, with no one else.  This secret place in God’s heart is for you and you alone.  You do not share it with anyone and God does not share it with anyone else but you.

You  see some Christian who has this great testimony, his spirit leaves his body and flies out over Russia and China and ministers to the needy of the world and you say: “Praise the Lord that’s what I want.”  So you read his book on how he obtained this special relationship with God and you follow his steps letter perfect.  Nothing happens.  Why nothing happens is that you are trying to dwell in the same place that is reserved for someone else.  No one can tell you your secret place with Eliyon (the Most High God).

You must search for Him with all your heart, soul and might. If you do you will be found by Him and you will dwell in the secret place He has reserved for you and you alone. Then all the might and power of God’s shadow will cover you.

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